Wednesday, 30 December 2015

From the Economist to Wikipedia to Websters to Barack Obama to Innovation Zen, around the globe, we seek tangible answers for an intangible question: What is Innovation? Definitions vary and people mean different things. After reviewing dozens of definitions from a diverse set of sources, I propose a consensus on a simple definition…as a basis for future conversations about Innovation. Note the red and green highlighting in the following definitions that help lead to the consensus.

"Technically, "innovation" is defined merely as "introducing something new;" there are no qualifiers of how ground-breaking or world-shattering that something needs to be—only that it needs to be better than what was there before. And that's where the trouble starts when an organization requests "innovation services" from a consulting firm. Exactly what are they really requesting? The fact is, innovation means different things to different people."

Business Week.

"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship… the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."

"Innovation: a creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation; the creation of something in the mind; the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new"

Wordnet

"Innovation: First of all, here is my own definition of innovation: 'invention refers to new concepts or products that derive from individual's ideas or from scientific research. Innovation, on the other hand, is the commercialization of the invention itself"

"The term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental changes to products, processes or services. The often unspoken goal of innovation is to solve a problem. Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, technology, sociology, and engineering. Since innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers."

"Innovation is a process, involving multiple activities, performed by multiple actors from one or several organizations, during which new combinations of means and/or ends, which are new for a creating and/or adopting unit, are developed and/or produced and/or implemented and/or transferred to old and/or new

Innovation: "The practical translation of ideas into new or improved products, services, processes, systems or social interactions"

The University of Mebourne

"Innovation. Something new or improved, havingmarketable potential, including (1) development of new applications for existing technologies, (2) refinement of existing technologies, or (3) development of new applications for existing technologies."

"Innovation needs structure. We need to originally explore the regions of creativity so we can bring method to the madness of originality. We need to expand that special resource known as innovativeness so that we are not dealing with a finite resource but with a renewable one. We need to give everyone in an organization the chance to develop innovative competencies. We need to make the systematic application of innovation real. "

"Innovation is really about responding to change in a creative way; it's about generating new ideas, conducting R&D, improving processes or revamping products and services. At another level, it's also a mindset in your business; your employees are always focused on continuous improvement and constantly thinking outside of the box"

"Innovation: The process of creating a product or service solution that delivers significant new customer value. The process begins with the selection of the customer and market, includes the identification and prioritization of opportunities, and ends with the creation of an innovative product or service."

For the most part, the aforementioned definitions hit on two strong chords of what Innovation really is. As a consensus summary definition, Innovation is

a) something fresh (new, original, or improved)

b) that creates value

Something new is not enough for the definition of innovation. There are plenty cases where something new has no new value ( a new color of a product or a new chemical produced that does nothing). Sometimes, the value creation results because the item is simply useful to us. We can create a lot of fresh or new things that are of no use and no value. It must create value to be innovation.

Also note that the "something" could be a process, product, or service and can start as small as your ideas and thoughts in your brain. In that case, it might just be innovative thinking.

On a parallel note, Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation and human resources, suggested an almost exact definition for creativity when he said: "In fact, creativity, which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things." Although he used the definition for creativity, it's a strong synonym of innovation.

Here is a good example: One of my colleagues discovered a new process to make the sugar substitute, Xylitol, for 1/10 of the cost. Xylitol (found in Trident & Dentyne gum) has the unique capability to actually help fight cavities. Read more about the company here. As a result of this "innovation", Xylitol could become cheap enough (valuable savings) for us to use it more regularly, and thereby, improve our teeth while we consume the sweets that typically ruin our teeth. Note that the process was something new that created value.

Now that we understand what Innovation is, we can comfortably start writing and collaborating with readers on this blog. In the next post, we explore what 7 key principles and ideas to innovation.

Feedback

What other good definitions am I missing? Do you agree/disagree with my consensus on what "innovation" is? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on one of the most important words that will shape the future of our world and business.​

Good leaders all have one thing in common: They know how to seek advice. It's a bit like parenting. No one who raises a child for the first time understands the job perfectly. You have to keep learning and growing. These experts know the drill. They've written about their experiences in leadership, spoken in front of mass audiences, and honed their skills over many years. Here are their single best tips, exclusive just to this list.

1. Don't hide anything from employees

"Your team can tell if you're hiding something. It makes them uncertain or suspicious, both of which you don't want. Lay out the rules of the game as you see them with your team. Let the team know where they are; work on a plan to go forward. Keep individuals up to date on their status as it relates to the group. All this forces you to have and share your vision, which is what makes you a great leader in the first place."

2. Show empathy in tangible ways

"You can't just be sympathetic and try to be liked every time someone comes to you with a problem or concern. But you need to be able to understand the problems, as well as that person's point of view. You can't just dismiss them out of hand. And if you're able to see things from their point of view and truly be empathetic, you'll be able to frame your response in a way that will prove you've heard them, and also answer their specific concerns. They might not always be happy, but it will lead to more acceptance if you have to tell them something they're not eager to hear."

3. Learn how to lead the younger generation

"Leaders of younger generations are from the most social generation in history. They are in constant contact with peers and family through iMessages and social media sites. But they are also highly isolated because so much of their relational contact is through technology. This has led to poor people skills, low emotional intelligence, and the inability to handle interpersonal challenges. Leaders should work to build relationships one-on-one. A helpful way to do so: Join industry or peer communities to take advantage of meeting and networking in person. Not only will this help their professional development but also help them learn to communicate on a level playing field with those of various generations and years of experience."

4. Don't be afraid of the truth

"Be willing to look at the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. That includes truths about yourself, your product, your people. If your product stinks and your people aren't performing, pretending that just ain't so won't change anything. At the same time, don't beat yourself up. Just look at it, address it, and move on."

5. Think like Swiss cheese

"Be candid with yourself and acknowledge what you know and don't know. Select supportive team members who possess the skills necessary to take the business in the right direction. See yourself as a piece of Swiss cheese--know your holes and add others (slices) whose substance, when layered on your slice, eventually creates a solid, firm unified block of cheese. A single slice of cheese with its many holes can easily be pulled apart, but a solid block is very difficult to pull apart."

6. Be human, not humanoid

"Humanoids show (and feel) no emotion at all. Ever. They are incapable of it. You may think there is no room for emotion in the workplace, but think again. There's already emotion there--too bad much of it is negative. Let some positive emotion flow between you and your people. Get to know them better ... and let them get to know you better. People will go to the wall for people they know, like, admire, and respect. But if they don't know the first thing about you (or vice versa), how can they feel as though they know you, or have a relationship or anything at all in common with you? Humans truly connect with each other on a personal level, not a business level. You don't have to be "best buds," but you must have at least a few human elements in common in order to effectively work together to accomplish common business goals. One way to be more human is to realize that simply saying, 'Hello, how are you?' each morning does not constitute a relationship. Get out and talk with different people occasionally; ask about their families, pets, hobbies ... and share yours. Remember their names (and the names of their significant others/children/pets); ask about a tough situation they've gone through. When they know you really care about them, they will care more about you, and this will bridge the divide and help eliminate the 'Us' and 'Them' mentality."

7. Never forget your responsibility

"My best leadership tip is to think of leadership as a responsibility as much as an opportunity. Effective leaders understand that they are responsible for everyone that they are leading, and consider that responsibility as the main concern of their position. If you ever lose empathy for, and dedication to, the people you are leading, you are not being a leader."

8. Get comfortable in dynamic environments

"In today's dynamic and uncertain business environment, the most successful firms are able to act quickly and decisively in response to change. Strong self-efficacy, high achievement, autonomy, and the ability to take decisive actions in the face of uncertainty and dynamic environments are critical capabilities for an organization. Preparing individuals to evaluate a dynamic environment and act in the face of uncertainty is a particular strength of the military and it should be a priority for executive training programs. It all begins with having a clear vision and a specific mission that empowers people to act in alignment with the company objectives."

9. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you

"Leaders find success when they create teams composed of people who are experts in their areas, and many times, smarter than the leader who's hiring them. Great leaders give them room to grow and innovate. These are the leaders who people want to work for. Unlike the micromanager leader whose insecurity leads them to create teams that include people 'just like them.' These teams may make the leader feel comfortable, versus challenged for the purposes of creating the best work."

10. Take someone in training along with you on mundane tasks

"Several years ago I had to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew my license--a task that sometimes could mean three to four hours of waiting. There was a college student who was working for our church as an intern for a college credit. He wanted to learn the ins and outs of church leadership, so I asked him to come along to the DMV. Sure enough, it was a three-hour wait, but I spent that time answering all of the intern's questions about leadership. It was real quality time to invest in the young man. Now when I have a task that will involve a long wait time (such as going to the DMV or doctor's office or waiting for a plane flight or going on a long ride in the car, etc.), I take along a developing leader to invest in him or her."

11. Let employees in on your vision

"Be as transparent as you can with all of your team members. The more they know, the more you all are part of the same dream and vision and you'll all work harder to get where you need to go as a team. If you're keeping information from your team members, they'll lose trust and start to feel like they're not contributing to the bigger picture. That's when they look elsewhere."

12. Honor the past, built for the future

"When you're leading a new team or joining a new organization, honor the new team/organization's past, and then build them a bridge to the future. Too many leaders inherit a new team and want to tell everyone how much success they had in the past, and how good their old organization/team was. When leaders disrespect their new team, team members start asking each other the following questions: If your old organization or team was so good, why did you leave? If your old organization is so good, why don't you go back?"

Peter Barron Stark, a consultant, speaker, and author

13. Have a clear vision and communicate it to your team

"Know what your future looks like, feels like, and acts like. It has to be a compelling vision that gets your people excited and focused. Latch onto that picture as though it has already happened. Transport yourself into the future so you can see it with picture clarity. Share it with your team so they can see it and do what it takes to achieve it."

14. Make it a priority to develop your current leaders, nurture your future leaders, and hire great leaders

"Strong leadership is one of the key pillars of success at any organization. People aren't necessarily born with great leadership skills. As such, organizations can't just sit back and hope people will be great leaders. Leaders need to be shaped and molded. And by leaders, I don't just mean executives--I mean managers at every level of the organization. Too often frontline managers are overlooked when it comes to leadership development, when the reality is that 70 percent to 80 percent of the workforce reports to frontline managers. The results of a study we did with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services reveals 79 percent of global executives believe lack of frontline leadership capability negatively impacts company performance. As such, it's critical to the success of any organization that these people be given the tools, resources, and development to succeed."

15. Always lead with character

"Leaders with character are highly effective. They have no need to pull rank or resort to command and control to get results. Instead, they're effective because they're knowledgeable, admired, trusted, and respected. This helps them secure buy-in automatically, without requiring egregious rules or strong oversight designed to force compliance."

16. Nurture a better self-awareness

"Leadership has got nothing to do with figuring it out and everything to do with feeling it out. It is an 'awareness,' and for so long in my businesses, I too was not aware. Leaders aren't born; they evolve. And to evolve you must first be self-aware. To develop leadership skills, allow yourself to be open, honest, and real. Be confident, not arrogant. Confident leaders lead through values, vision, and vulnerability. Arrogant leaders lead through fear, blame, and ego."

Troy Hazard, a TV host, business owner, former Global President of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, and author of the book Future-Proofing Your Business

17. Good leadership is about good alignment

"If you think about achieving your vision, it's like climbing a mountain. Executives and managers think they have to be all buttoned up and have the path up the mountain all mapped out, then they shout the directions back down to their organization. But really, leadership is about alignment, and that means we can achieve a lot more if we all go up that mountain together."

18. It's not about you

"Repeat the words, 'It's not about me!' every day, multiple times a day. Don't make your leadership about being in charge, being right, getting promoted, or looking the best. Make leadership about the cause of the organization, serving the legitimate needs of those you're leading, and not taking yourself so darn seriously. You'll have people lining up to work for and with you and the results will follow."

19. Use the right posture for leadership

"Your posture and body language needs to be intentional and consistent. Always be aware of your posture when you are sitting, standing and walking. Roll shoulders up, back, and down. Straighten your spine; leaders don't slouch. Nor do they intimidate with off-putting body language such as crossed arms, puffed out chest and finger waving. Align your appearance, head-to-toe, with how you wish to be known. Aligning your appearance also means dressing the part head-to-toe. This includes wardrobe, haircut, eyeglasses and even shoes. Leaders look the part--not like they just rolled out of bed. A pressed dress shirt or wool sweater, well-fitting trousers, leather shoes and belt is a good uniform to adopt. A tie and/or sport jacket give extra bonus points for executive presence. Update your eyeglasses every other year and get a good haircut. Dress, head-to-toe, as the leader you want to be."

20. Be a curious leader

"When we are curious with others, we learn, we collaboration, and we innovate. When leaders aren't curious, they tend to judge, tell, blame, and even shame without realizing it. This creates conflict, frustration, narrows perspectives and opportunities, and prohibits collaboration, innovation, and understanding. Based on our 10 years working with leaders, we know that they know they need a new language to be successful; however, they don't know how to access it. Curiosity allows you to access that language to meet the leadership needs of the 21st century."

• High self-esteem.• Consistency.• Courage and determination.• Integrity and honesty.• Self-acceptance and acceptance of others.• Believing in what you do, regardless of external factors.• Responsibility.• Dedication, determination and tranquility.• Being positive in the face of adversities (negative circumstances).• Being consistent with your values.• Precision in decisions and choices.• Focus.• Performing all tasks with love and happiness.• Giving the maximum of yourself in everything you do.• Creativity.• Thoughts and actions in tune with each other.• Appreciation and blessings (good wishes) from others.• Gratitude toward oneself and others.

A New Year's resolution is a self commitment that a person makes to achieve personal goals, projects, or reforming of a bad habit. This commitment is the driving force to perform the corrective and preventive actions throughout the next year in order for achieving the committed result.

Below are the top ten New Year Resolution which you can consider to chose from for your personal goals in next year:

1-Learning new things: Gaining more and more knowledge increases the wisdom level by giving you insightful depth in the field of your interest. Whether you are a professional, a businessman, student or a house wife you must learn new things in order to enhance your mental horizons and improving your life standards. You can do this by getting trainings, earning a new degree or certificate, subscribing to online communities or reading books. 2-Achieving Mental & Spiritual Heights: This one is my favorite as Mental peace and mental prosperity is the most critical aspect of life regardless of the financial situation. Even if you are rich, if you don't have mental peace, you are missing a great blessing so you must work on the techniques to attain a humble and stable mind. This can be achieved by attaining positive personality, by having better control on Anger, by being less Reactive, and by avoiding Stress.

3-Financial Targets: Most of us work on this target all year round. However we do not strategize enough to achieve it. Primarily we spend a lot of money on our wants instead of our needs. A careful analysis must be done before you spend on anything. Read this article for making good decision. Another aspect of achieving financial growth is to increase your sources of income for example running a new business, changing your current job, investing in land or gold etc. You may want to read this side article about what is actual wealth and how to achieve this.

4-Health and Fitness: With the invention of new luxuries the life style is becoming more and more lazy consequently raising the bar for health related concerns. What adds fuel to the fire is our increased liking for fast foods and dining out in unhealthy restaurants. Junk food adds fats, results in high cholesterol and high Blood Pressure which increase the risk of heart disease leading us towards big disasters. Make a commitment to yourself to minimize eating fast foods and shift to vegetables and fruits. This cannot be done overnight so you have to change your current habits slowly and steadily.

5-New Career Move: I was listening to the interview of the CEO of Porsche selling company; the guy mentioned that autonomy is the most considerable reason people leave their job. Everyone wants more and more luxury, independence and growth in life. So you make this resolution to go high in your professional ladder this year. Carefully sense the market and make a smart move. Read this article, 15 ways to Find Job

6-Cutting the clutters: This is not something to achieve rather to leave in order to gain indirect goals. Stats show that people who live simple life have higher happiness index. Basically what happens is that over the course of time we keep purchasing things because of our instant buying habit mixed with our intention to show-off and then eventually we dump these things in the closets or home store. Being too much materialistic and having the lust of acquiring more and more things, even if we don't use them, takes us away from simple life which ultimately add extra layer to the complications in our lives . Now is the time to clear all those bulky things in the closet and store including old clothes, toys and other commodities to give in charity. Personally, I use 6 months formula" "If something has not been used for the last 6 months, there is a most likely chance that it will not be used in next 6 months so better to give this to poor people & family around me"

7-Spend more time with family: With more focus on materialistic things we have reduced our family time, sometimes our children are being referred to as new age orphans. With everyone busy on his smart phones, PDAs, laptops and Television we have almost killed the family union spirit which is adding complications in relationships resulting in serious consequences. Strong family bonding are an indicative of better happiness index. People who spend less time with families are comparatively less happier. Make a resolution this year to become a family guy. Spend time with them, spend money on family fun activities and you will feel a special mental peace eventually.

8-Getting Organized: Staying organized has many advantages in terms of having more time for yourself and family; in terms of saving money; peace of mind, better health, balanced life and improved professional/Social life. This involves being organized in terms of time, in terms of office desk, official work, differentiating between urgent and important tasks and organize them, maintaining a personal diary, maintaining a list of things-to-do.

9-Helping Others: Not a lot of people focus on this but I would really appeal you to consider this. Charity Services are the tax we pay back to society for living on earth. Almost all of the religions emphasize to its followers to take care of people around them. Practically speaking, you can assign 3-5% of your earnings for charity projects within your country or foreign countries who are less fortunate; having low or no food and/or having lack of other basic human necessities like water, clothes, medicines etc. Article written by Junaid.Tahir10-Quit Smoking and drinking: Understood that bad habits die hard but remember the fact that bad habits make you die early too, especially when it comes to habits of smoking and drinking. Quit them ASAP before they overcome your health. You already know that how these two habits affect your lungs, kidneys and levers. Quit them before they make you quit the world.